The 40 Best Windows 8.1 Apps

Fresh Paint

Free

If you're running Windows 8 on a touch tablet, there's no better demonstration of the cool types of things you can do with multitouch than Fresh Paint. Five simultaneous fingers are supported, and you can actually mix new colors on a virtual palette. If you’d rather not start with a blank canvas, "packs" of line drawings and cartoons can get you started. The Fun Pack is free, but the more artistic Variety Pack is a $1.49 in-app purchase, and the Adventure Pack, with its 24 character sketches and Friends Pack of mostly pets cost $1.99 each.

Of course, you can just start finger or mouse painting on a blank page or a photo of your own, with a good variety of brush and pencil tips. You also choose among a dozen canvas and paper textures. Once you’re done, you can export your masterpiece to a PNG file, or even use the Share charm to send it to any apps that can share to email, social networks, and more. This is a surprisingly polished app, but it’s one that’s been around since the early days of Windows 8 prereleases. What’s most impressive is that the paint is just so real looking.